ri
became doge five years later, and in his reign the first marked signs
appear in architecture of that mighty change which Philippe de Commynes
notices as above, the change to which London owes St. Paul's, Rome St.
Peter's, Venice and Vicenza the edifices commonly supposed to be their
noblest, and Europe in general the degradation of every art she has
since practised.

Sec. XXXV. This change appears first in a loss of truth and vitality in
existing architecture all over the world. (Compare "Seven Lamps," chap.
ii.) All the Gothics in existence, southern or northern, were corrupted
at once: the German and French lost themselves in every species of
extravagance; the English Gothic was confined, in its insanity, by a
strait-waistcoat of perpendicular lines; the Italian effloresced on the
mainland into the meaningless ornamentation of the Certosa of Pavia and
the Cathedral of Como (a style sometimes ignorantly called Italian
Gothic), and at Venice into the insipid confusion of the Porta della
Carta and wild crockets of St. Mark's. This corruption of all
architecture, especially ecclesiastical, corresponded with, and marked
the state of religion over all Europe,--the peculiar degradation of the
Romanist superstition, and of public morality in consequence, which
brought about the Reformation.

Sec. XXXVI. Against the corrupted papacy arose two great divisions of
adversaries, Protestants in Germany and England, Rationalists in France
and Italy; the one requiring the purification of religion, the other its
destruction. The Protestant kept the religion, but cast aside the
heresies of Rome, and with them her arts, by which last rejection he
injured his own character, cramped his intellect in refusing to it one
of its noblest exercises, and materially diminished his influence. It
may be a serious question how far the Pausing of the Reformation has
been a consequence of this error.

The Rationalist kept the arts and cast aside the religion. This
rationalistic art is the art commonly called Renaissance, marked by a
return to pagan systems, not to adopt them and hallow them for
Christianity, but to rank itself under them as an imitator and pupil. In
Painting it is headed by Giulio Romano and Nicolo Poussin; in
Architecture by Sansovino and Palladio.

Sec. XXXVII. Instant degradation followed in every direction,--a flood of
folly and hypocrisy. Mythologies ill understood at first, then perverted
into feeble sensualities, take th